[OS X TeX] Re: End of i-Installer/i-Packages support per 1/1/2007

[Kirk Lowery]

On 11/11/06, Gerben Wierda <Gerben.Wierda at rna.nl> wrote:

>  After Jan 1, I will no longer support i-Installer or my i-Packages. I
> will still use it personally and the incidental i-Package update
> (e.g. ConTeXt updates) will find its way to the repositores. But I
> will not offer e-mail support (nor answer it) and I will not do any
> work unless it is for personal reasons.

This is indeed sad -- although completely understandable -- news. Let
me add my gratitude to those of others for your great contribution to
the Mac and TeX community.

> There are several reasons why I have to end support. The most
> important reasons are:
> - The end of teTeX and the volatility of TeX Live.  Keeping up with
> changes in TeX Live is beyond me and the support load that will come
> from it is *way* beyond me
>   - My day job will take more energy and time (remember: my i-Package/
> i-Installer activities have been done in my spare time).
> - I want to be a TeX *user* for a change.
> - 6 years have been wonderful but also enough.
>
> I will try to leave the setup in such a state that someone else can
> take it up. I will also be available for advise *if* someone else
> takes it up but only to a certain level (e.g. I am not going to help
> people learn perl or Objective-C or Cocoa or etc.)

A question, then, to the whole list: where do we go from here? Let's
assume no one takes up i-Package/i-Installer. It's now up to the
individual user to maintain his/her TeX installation directly from the
TeXLive collection, no? Or can we adapt some other distribution for OS
X?

For example, I know that Gentoo (a "from the source code" locally
compiled distribution) is transitioning from teTeX to TeXLive. Or,
better, perhaps, a BSD distribution of TeXLive, if such exists?

 Or?

Kirk
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